Ex-tech for meningitis-linked pharmacy: NECC 'got greedy'

50 meningitis deaths linked to NECC

As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention increased its death toll in a meningitis outbreak linked to Framingham's New England Compounding Center to 50, former employees say the company brazenly broke the rules.

For the first time in the six months since the fungal meningitis outbreak, those who worked inside the compounding pharmacy are speaking out.

Joe Connolly, a former technician, told “60 Minutes,” “The underlying factor is that the company got greedy and over extended. And we got sloppy and something happened.”

Connolly says mold was found in the clean room a dozen times during a span of three years.

NECC was supposed to manufacture drugs for individual patients, but Connolly says a month before the first death he warned his supervisor, “Something's going to happen, something's going to get missed and we're going to get shut down. We weren't compounding any more. We were manufacturing.”

An unidentified salesman told “60 Minutes” that NECC dispensed to nearly 3,000 hospitals and clinics nationwide -- in many cases issuing medications based on fake names supplied by clients looking for cheap drugs.

The International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists says NECC acted illegally and outside its license as a pharmacy.

“The biggest failure is that the state legislature did not adequately fund its regulatory agency. The agency didn't have the funds to do its job,” said IACP CEO David Miller.

The governor has proposed a $1 million for more inspectors, stiffer fines and whistle-blower protection.

“I feel like we've taken very thoughtful and comprehensive steps so that we can make sure that we are exercising the level of oversight that's required,” said DPH interim Commissioner Dr. Lauren Smith.

Darrel Clark is one of more than 700 people nationwide sickened after receiving a contaminated steroid injection manufactured by NECC.

"I feel they're criminals. It's like they gave out poison knowing it was poison but didn't care because they were making money,” he said.

Fifty people have died, and Clark’s family worried the 50-year-old father would be one of them.

In a statement a lawyer for the company said the investigation into what happened is ongoing.

“We still don't know how or why this occurred. Until we can answer this question, it is premature and unfair to accuse anybody of causing this contamination,” attorney Bruce Singal, on behalf of NECC owner Barry Cadden, said in a statement.

Surprise DPH inspections in February resulted in cease and desist orders for 11 out of 40 sterile compounding pharmacies.

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